Cape Town –The gates to Mandla Mandela’s Mvezo property were
forced open as undertakers and police arrived on Wednesday, to exhume the
bodies of former president Nelson Mandela’s three children.

Mandela had earlier been ordered by the Eastern Cape High
Court in Mthatha to return the bodies he had moved from Qunu.

ENCA reported that the gates have been forced open by the
sheriff of the court. Three hearses are said to have entered the property.

The graves are those of Madiba's eldest son and Mandla‘s
father, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; Mandela's first daughter Makaziwe
Mandela, who died as an infant in 1948; and Mandela's second son Madiba
Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969.

In his ruling Judge Lusindiso Pakade ordered the sheriff of
the court to exhume the graves at Mandla's property in Mvezo and move them to
the family farm in Qunu for reburial.

Judge Pakade had ordered that the exhumation take place by
15:00 on Wednesday, but the gates at Mandela's property had to be forced open
for officials to gain access.

The original court order was made last week.

EWN’s Mandy Wiener tweeted: “Cringing watching visuals of
the sheriff cracking open the gates to Mandla Mandela's property with a pick.
The shame of a nation.”

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